Access to DATABASE_URL during build time in the App Platform

@jameshfisher, I landed on this thread looking for an answer to this too. For me specifically I was looking to run some database migrations, and I couldn’t get at the DATABASE_URL environment variable at build time.

On this documentation page (https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/how-to/use-environment-variables/#databases)

They explain:

Database values are not available during build time but are available at runtime.

So that just isn’t an option, and based on other feedback I’ve read it won’t be an option.

But have hope, you should be able to utilize “Jobs” to achieve the desired effect you’re looking for.

The documentation to set a job up can be found at (https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/how-to/manage-jobs/)

One thing that tripped me up when I was creating the job, was that after you link the particular repo, and hit "Next", I think it autodetects the type of resource you want to create based on the project (in my case it autodetected my repo as a "Web Service"). So you’ll have to edit that resource and change the "Resource Type" to "Job".

After choosing "Job" you have the option of choosing when the job gets run:

• After every failed deploy
• After every successful deploy
• Before every deploy

In your case “Before every deploy” to build those pages prior to deployment is probably what you want. Don’t forget to add the DATABASE_URL environment variable for that job as well.

Hope this helps!

There is no workaround for this. Even if you set DATABASE_URL manually, any attempt to connect to it at build time results in a connection timeout.